CEO Blog: Marking World Mental Health Day

Hopefully by shining a spotlight on the importance of mental health and wellbeing, we can help people who may be struggling, to realise that they are not alone and that poor mental health is not something to be defined by.

Hopefully we can signpost more people to our wonderful mental health champions and run leaders who offer their expertise and humanity to help individuals, families and communities across England through the #RunAndTalk initiative.

As someone who was finally diagnosed with General Anxiety Disorder (GAD), with traits of other mental health conditions, when I was 50 years of age, I know how important it is to create an environment and space for people to feel that it is ok from time to time, not to be ok.

Talking about our mental health

As a leader of this organisation, I have always felt that it is important to be open about my own struggles because it might help someone else. It is also self-healing in a way that I never fully recognised until in recent years.

As with many others, sport has always been central to my life. It is something that I obsessed with from an early age (and still do now) and sometimes my experiences were not always positive. I temper that comment by also adding that sport has given me so much that is positive and that some of my mental health traits could also help me from time to time - the ability to focus, concentrate and almost consume myself with the requirements of the sport, but alas at other times the obsession of wanting to do well was all too much.

At the other end of the performance pathway, one of our finest track talents, 400m hurdler Jack Green, talks openly and regularly about his own struggles in this respect, and the pressure of doing well, with such clarity and openness and has used this experience to help others.

Athletes such as Joe Fuggle have worked hard to create a safe space for others through The Athlete Place initiative and he is also doing such important work to help athletes and parents through those sometimes challenging years as they progress through the talent pathway.

Exhilarating or exasperating

For me sport could be exhilarating and joyful when it went well, but equally exasperating, isolating, and humiliating when it went wrong for fear of failure and implications of doing so on how I was perceived by others and what it meant for me as a human being – sometimes I felt how I performed defined me as a person. I know that to be flawed now but it was incredibly wearing and tiring. I grew up in an era when it wasn’t cool to talk about how you were feeling for fear of ridicule or teasing. I have forged great friendships through sport that will last a lifetime but equally I never felt comfortable to be able to open up at a younger age about how I was feeling to my teammates, coaches, or family circle during those formative years. You learn a lot about yourself through life experiences but also about who your real friends are too during those tougher times.

Our focus on mental health

Thankfully things have changed significantly over the last 20 years and largely for the good. In sport and society, we are much better informed, more empathetic, and more understanding of mental health and wellbeing than ever before.

At England Athletics we are proud of our focus and work in this space, working closely with our member clubs, running groups, volunteers and partners such as Mind.

There are millions of people who already know the power of running and how it has impacted their lives. We have showcased some of this through the lives of those who have been brave enough to share their stories in our 2024 campaign.

The role that sport can play

The resources, treatment, and intelligence on the important tools of prevention and management are far more advanced than ever before. However, I still believe in the role that sports and running can play in prevention and how sport and physical activity is hugely under resourced when it comes to public investment and government policy. When one considers the level of investment that goes into cure over prevention, surely running has a central role to play in future health policy?

We will never stop as an organisation working closely with our partners, our members, and key stakeholders such as London Marathon, The Great Run Company, UKA, the other Home Countries, and wider running sector to influence this. We strive to ultimately gain the same recognition through government as activities such as cycling and walking have achieved through the active travel policies.

Creating that safe space, that solace for people to share how they are feeling and to help with healing is fundamental to my mind and that is why, during World Mental Health Day, we celebrate the wonderful role that our sport is playing in this space. We celebrate those individuals whose selfless energy, love, and compassion are making a true difference to the lives of others. The combined medication of both running and the motivation of inspirational Mental Health Champions in our 1,450 member clubs and over 3,000 social RunTogether groups, continues to give. Life is precious and in my view, running is playing a massive part in preserving, enriching, and emboldening it.

I recently had the pleasure of presenting a 40-year service award to hard working Yorkshire based volunteer officials in our sport three weeks ago. All four of these heroes stated that their role in our sport had given them much by the way of friendship, camaraderie, belonging, and achievement. One individual, in wiping away the tears, said that “athletics saved my life. 47 years ago, I was in a very low point in my life and athletics saved me”. Say no more.

Thank you for whatever you are doing to help others; however, minor you think it might be. It is enriching and, in some cases, may be lifesaving.